Restaurants fight for noise control

New York marches to the beat of its own drum. If you talk to the experts on hearing, that is part of the problem.

Every minute you can hear buses going by, delivery truck's cargo bouncing around, or the subway pulling into the station. Depending on how long the noise lasts, and how much of it we are exposed to, we are doing serious damage to our ears.

Andrea Boidman is the executive director of the Hearing Health Foundation.

"We're trying to encourage people to take care of their hearing," said Boidman.

Boidman's organization is joining forces with some area restaurants to serve up a portion of noise control. They are calling May 15th "Turn Down the Volume Night" in restaurants. It is an effort to raise awareness.

"We're going to try to minimize clatter and loud expediting in our kitchens," said Burak Karacam at Pera Mediterranean Brasserie in Midtown.

Pera is one of nine restaurants signed up. Even before the dinner crowd shows up Eyewitness News' decibel meter registered an 85

85 is the warning zone when it comes to decibel meters, and many areas in New York City hit that all the time. Anything over 85 is too loud, and you shouldn't have more than 15 minutes of exposure of per day.

Even the ice cream truck iced the competition with a decibel in the 90s.